Star Light, Star Bright
by soymilklatte
Summary: Stargazing, shooting stars, and sleepless nights. Written with TenToo in mind but really any Doctor of your choice would work. (KidFic.)


Somehow the Doctor is still asleep. Rose does not know how it's possible as he is usually the first one up whenever Emma gets fussy but she is grateful for it all the same as they have had a ridiculously busy and somewhat harrowing day and the Doctor needs his rest. He has been running himself ragged for weeks now and even though she desperately wants to know why, he is keeping his reasons locked up tight. He won't talk about it and he is being very careful not to let anything slip through their bond. It frustrates her but she is trying to give him his space, knowing that when he is ready, he will come to her. For now though, she pulls her cardigan on and quietly leaves their bedroom as she walks down the hall to their daughter's nursery.

Before she can set foot inside their daughter's room though, a quiet and sleepy, ' _Rose?_ ' echoes through their bond.

' _Go back to sleep, Doctor. I'm just going to see to Emma_.'

' _She all right?_ '

' _She's fine, I'm sure. Go back to sleep, love_.'

' _Kay. Love you_.'

' _Love you too_ ,' she still cannot control the seemingly involuntary smile that never fails to follow those words. After waiting so long to hear them, she cherishes every utterance of them. Even now as they have become a multiple times a day occurrence, she never tires of hearing them or speaking them herself.

Emma is crying softly in her cradle and Rose gathers her into her arms. She coos and cuddles her little bundle until Emma quiets down.

"What's the matter, sweetheart? Can't you sleep?"

Emma isn't hungry and doesn't need changing so Rose picks up her blanket and the two of them head to the console room. The lights are dimmed, as they are throughout the TARDIS, for the night cycle and it casts a peaceful atmosphere over the entire ship. Rose adjusts the force field before opening the doors and settling down with Emma so the two of them can stargaze in a way that is wholly unique to them.

Through their bond she can feel the Doctor stirring and knows it won't be long before he is awake and comes to join them. She sees a shooting star and can imagine his grumblings about how " _shooting stars aren't really shooting stars, Rose_ " and whilst she knows this, right now she is in the mood for a little fairy tale magic so she makes her wish. It's a harmless thing after all and for as brilliant as she knows Emma will prove to be, Rose hopes she will leave a little room in her life for whimsy.

She turns and smiles softly when she hears the Doctor finally enter the room, "Was beginning to wonder when you would get here."

"I looked in Emma's room first before I remembered you said you were getting her," he sits down next to them and places a kiss on Emma's head as Rose cuddles closer to him.

The three of them are silent for a while as they gaze at the universe outside their doors. Another shooting star appears and Rose cannot resist turning to the Doctor with a teasing smile and asking, "Did you make a wish?"

She expects him to roll his eyes or give a lecture about ' _shooting stars_ ' but she can feel a quiet happiness, a contentment radiating through their bond, along with a bone deep fear that he could lose this, lose them, so very easily. So that what it is, that fear. That is what has been haunting him for these past few weeks. His emotions make her breath catch and she finds that she is suddenly desperate for him to answer.

He takes a few minutes to respond, enough time passes that she isn't certain he is actually going to answer her at all, but then, quietly, he says, "For this. I wished for an eternity filled with moments like this."

He turns to her then and she sees the truth of it in his eyes. It's all she can do to keep her tears at bay so instead she lifts her head just enough to meet him for a kiss.

"We'll have them. You'll see. We will have countless moments just like this one."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Forever?"

"Always. Forever."

The Doctor wraps his arm around her, adjusts Emma's blanket, as Rose cuddles against him and he wonders how it is that he has somehow become the luckiest man in the universe, in any universe actually.

Having caught the tail end of that thought, Rose turns her head and places a kiss on his jaw before snuggling close again and the three of them go back to their stargazing.


End file.
